The Infinity Portal is a 10 foot tall archway with a 7 x 4 ft infinity mirror inside of it. The mirror is made with two-way acrylic, so you can push on it to warp the effect for people on either side of it. It is lit with addressable LEDs, so there is a counter-rotating rainbow vortex in there too. You may remember seeing our write-up about prototyping the design a few months ago.

Defying all expectations, the thing actually survived both events that we brought it to! So we're really happy with it and will find a place to keep it in the mean time.

We actually (surprisingly) did a pretty good job of documenting this build, so we cut it together into a video to show how we built this huge, epic piece of art. Enjoy!

Again with the weekly (more or less...) list of delectable offerings by Freeside, your friendly local dragon and hamster breeder.

Sunday, 10/20: Freeside Laser: Basic Usage and Safety at 2pm
Learn how to use Freeside's new Laser Engraver/Cutter (wiki page). You'll learn how to use the software toolchains to cut or engrave vector and bitmap artwork into a variety of materials. And after the class, you'll be eligible to schedule a one-on-one session an approved user to supervise and assist with your first project, and thereby gain authorization to use the laser unsupervised. That's right. Just you and the laser. $40/person. Pay on Meetup.

Tuesday, 10/22: Chump Car Build at 7pm
Ever wanted to race a car, build a moving art project, or learn to work on a car? Here is your chance to do one or all three! Please join us at Freeside to learn more! And it's totally free, man.

And simultaneously...

Tuesday, 10/22: Open House at 7:30pm
Where the house is open, and the tours are free. If this is your first time to visit Freeside, or you want to hang out with the members, here's your best chance. Happens every week, but you want to go this week, I promise. Free, so long as you are more than 50% organic, original human material.

Wednesday, 10/23 and Thursday, 10/24: Introduction to Electricity, Magnetism, and Energy at 7:30pm
In this class you will learn the terminology of electricity, magnetism and energy. You will learn some of the history behind the works and discoveries of Einstein, Maxwell, Tesla, Faraday and many other experimenters and theorists from the past to the present. We will not avoid discussing controversial aspects of the differences in the views of these larger-than-life individuals. Two nights only! (Attend one or both nights!) $20/person. Pay on Meetup.

As always, check out the Meetup for more info, and to RSVP to classes and stuff. And don't forget to take a snapshot and email it to me!

Step right up, ladies and gents! Never seen such fine taxidermy before? The best in all the land!

I see a lot of disappointed faces - you there, reading the article! You some kind of Internet-dwelling, city slicker? Oh, you are. Very well then - that's totally not a problem! What's that you say? What's going on?!

Welcome to the Trading Post - tales from the wild and unsane world of hackerspace skills trading.

One of the key benefits to being part of a community of skilled people with diverse backgrounds is that you're surrounded by opportunities to try something new and learn from each other.

Whether you're into taxidermy, python, arduinos, or rebuilding arcade machines, you can leverage your skill set to learn new skills from other hackerspace members. If you successfully find a match, then that's what we at Freeside call The Gift of the Magi moment. Cherish it.

This week, I promised Paul I'd get his website hosted and up and running with Wordpress. In exchange, he'd let me take his Introduction to Milling class for free.

My project was simple: machine a new set of jaws for Freeside's bench vice.

The first step in the process is measure, measure, and measure again. It was little later reflecting on all this that I realized all that talk in middle school about proper measurement and significant figures. We spent a good hour on the measurements themselves. After some quick instruction with calipers, and how to draw the plans for the part, I went through and filled in all the measurements, twice - then Paul re-measured, and we were good to go.

Freeside has a vertical mill on loanation from Paul. It's a pretty awesome machine - it wasn't until I actually got hands-on experience with it that I got some serious appreciation for how versatile it is. The first thing I learned how to do was to aligning the machine vice. A dial indicator was traversed across a machine square, and put the vice in alignment. So, in a sense, more measuring. Accuracy is king - Paul told me we could machine at a thickness less than a human hair. This is more than enough for our bench vice jaws!

The milling itself is a straight-forward process, once you understand how the measurement on each axis corresponds to the measurements on the part's plans. At some point, we had to make some spindle speed adjustments by changing the belts.

After all the milling was done, we drilled out the screw holes, and used another bit to taper them. The final step is to use a file to smooth out each edge of the machined part.

The end product is that there to the right. Shiny!

Although I ran out of the time we had agreed on to finish the pipe jaws together, Paul added those in later. Now, we just need one more to complete the set!

We had a small scare trying it out on the bench vice, when the screw holes didn't line up properly. It just ended up being a matter of not having them wide enough, so crisis averted!

Besides making something useful for Freeside, I really got a serious appreciation for all the time and skill that goes into manufacturing. There's some interesting problem solving that I wasn't used to, especially when you're faced with the constraint of one mistake completely messing up the part.

It's about time for Atlanta Mini Maker Faire 2013 (10/26). LearnToSolder.org and Freeside Atlanta are once again hosting a free Learn to Solder tent. Last year's tent was a huge success, teaching around 100 kids (aged 4 to 80) how to solder together a basic electronic kit. This year, we hope to double that number, but we need help!

We've got all the supplies, irons, solder, project kits, helping hands, band aids and burn gel. What we need are volunteers to supervise and mentor the kids in constructing the kits. These kits are simple, and designed for first timers, but gives them something they can be proud of and show off. You're there to help troubleshoot (solder bridges, cold joints), teach (show them how to do the first joint), and supervise (make sure they know which end of the iron is the hot one), etc.